Currently in MA they have scheduled for implementation a pilot program to drastically reduce visitation hours at the medium/minimum prisons. I would really appreciate it if you all could sign and pass along the petition located at the url below:

What does agency policy state about visitation periods? If the unit was offering broader periods of time than was required, then they also have the discretion to scale hours back. Operational needs is often executive code for short-staffed...and the Courts have long recognized security needs as taking precedence over most all else...

Currently in MA they have scheduled for implementation a pilot program to drastically reduce visitation hours at the medium/minimum prisons. I would really appreciate it if you all could sign and pass along the petition located at the url below:

What does agency policy state about visitation periods? If the unit was offering broader periods of time than was required, then they also have the discretion to scale hours back. Operational needs is often executive code for short-staffed...and the Courts have long recognized security needs as taking precedence over most all else...

I very often appreciate your no-nonsense approach to posts and issues. And if the question here was indeed whether or not MA was not providing their bare minimum of visitation I would appreciate this post as well. However, as I am sure you have read the petition, the issue is not the latter. It is that visits are already overcrowded, and the removal of a weekday will severely impact the ability of family (esp those who work weekends which usually include Fridays) to visit their loved ones. And then, therefore, impact the community as a whole in an indirect way. My husband was just moved a few months ago from a max security prison in MA to NCCI. While the visiting periods were short, especially given my 6 hour weekly round trip, they were offered on weekends, fridays and midweek. To try to accommodate schedules. At NCCI, where people are already getting kicked out of visits after 40min because of overcrowding due to the current allotted hours, to reduce hours to this extreme and to only have visits fri-sun, is, really, ridiculous.

BUT, if you dont feel the same, that is totally cool, just dont sign the petition.

This is not an issue affecting just MA. There is at this very moment a somewhat covert operation that is being implemented across the BOP at random facilities as part of a trial program to see what kind of pushback there is to taking away visitations. At the same time they are beginning to implement video visitation at other facilities. They will eventually offer one as a solution to the other and contact visits will no longer be an option under the current administration. The BOP has pretty much figured out that with the excessive bullying and harassment of visitors over the years they have us all where they want us. We can't speak out to loudly and we can't make it known who we are when we do or they WILL retaliate against your loved ones. Circumstances are unfortunately not much different at State and Private prisons. The end goal is to eliminate contact visitation.

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Congress has already started fighting back. You could ask your representative to introduce or sponsor another bill like HR 6441 from last year: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-...1%22%5D%7D&r=1 and scroll down to the summary. It would have stopped them from using video visits in place of in-person visits. Meanwhile, I'll cheer you on about the petition. Good work. Keep going.

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Congress has already started fighting back. You could ask your representative to introduce or sponsor another bill like HR 6441 from last year: and scroll down to the summary. It would have stopped them from using video visits in place of in-person visits. Meanwhile, I'll cheer you on about the petition. Good work. Keep going.

I don't think this will go anywhere positive under the current administration personally I think it will be floated downhill and forgotten along with the other issues and they will proceed with the suspensions of visitations as they have right now. I have been trying to find a list of all current suspended or modified schedules as I know they have to report but every time I go to the pages I get a forbidden access message.

An update to this... Gardner did not do anything about the petition. We got it all the way up to the Governors office and they did nothing and the Superintendent just kept staying operational needs as the reason. Speaking to guards we actually found out that they are not short staffed. It's because Guards use to get two days off in a row if they worked they visitation shift 1-8:30pm. She decided she didn't want to give that perk so she took away Monday visits and took away evening weekend visits.

New hours are Friday 1-8:30pm, Saturday visits are 9am-12pm and Sundays 12pm-3:30pm

Friday hours have no changed, but because Monday visits were removed Friday is way overcrowded. to the point where they bring in chairs from a back room and sometimes have to kick people out on a first come, first serve basis. You have to be lined up off property by 10am and by the time you drive up at 12pm there are 35+ cars

Saturday hours mean that if you want yourself and your children to get in for a full visit and be one of the first in you have to be lined up off the grounds of the prison at 6:30am and wait until 8pm, drive up to the parking lot, and wait in the waiting room until 9:15 to be called in then get kicked by 11:45 so you can be back in the waiting room by 12 and not visiting until 12. These visits are usually always during kids weekend sports games. That's why weekend evening visits were so important.

Sundays. You have to be lined up by 10am in order to be one of the first few cars and it's the same as Saturday visits.

Just sad that she has no problem hurting families just so she can bully her CO's

Visits are not that long...that is the hours that visitation is conducted. Most visits are two hours one day or the other. Some will qualify for a four hour visit based upon distance driven (I think current guidelines are at 250 miles each way).

Visits are not that long...that is the hours that visitation is conducted. Most visits are two hours one day or the other. Some will qualify for a four hour visit based upon distance driven (I think current guidelines are at 250 miles each way).

8-5 isn't a lot when visits are only offered two days, for two hours and people have to drive long distances to get to their loved ones units. A lot of times there are too many people so they don't get their full visit. Texas is better than some places and I truly feel for those loved ones who get screwed by their state's system.

8-5 isn't a lot when visits are only offered two days, for two hours and people have to drive long distances to get to their loved ones units. A lot of times there are too many people so they don't get their full visit. Texas is better than some places and I truly feel for those loved ones who get screwed by their state's system.

Truth i am 30 miles north of Waco my lady has been sent to Planes State Jail in Dayton. That is over 3 hours a way one trip. I was seeing her twice a week while she was in Waco and think those monitor visits are b/s. I had to drive 30 to 40 mins then just to look at a computer screen because they refuse to allow online visit even thought they technically have denied to provide us with real live visits. When they took that to the supreme courts i never thought it would pass and be allowed. But i also think the Fact Waco spent 2 million on that monitor visit center had more leverage then our rights. I have not been able to visit her sense she caught chain i am going this weekend and hope nothing goes wrong i had to learn from inmates to be sure my truck bed was empty because they have no info on line as in means if a check list that i have found on all the rules and how they operate... If our government is gonna human traffic our loved ones the least they could do is make sure family members can visit them. they can lock you up 24 hours a day they pull your chain in the middle of the night but you get 2 8 hour days once a week to see your loved ones.... kind of throwed off when you put it in perspective.

From what I'm reading here, Texas is predominantly non contact visits right? What's the reasoning for this please? Do you know @CenTexLyn? My fiance is in PA State, and it seems that ncv's is how the DOC want things to go, that messes me up, coz I'm currently still in Australia and have to travel 9,000+ miles one way to visit him. It's sad to think we could lose the opportunity to hold each other in an embrace at the start and finish of each visit, and that we won't ever be able to kiss again (he's LWOP currently, but hoping things change one day) but it won't stop me from marrying him, loving him or moving to live closer to him....it'll just suck. I really feel for all of you that don't currently get contact visits. I'm always willing to sign petitions (for all states in USA, not just PA) to help keep or even to reinstate contact visits, as I feel that especially for children and incarcerated parents, that physical contact is important to keep their bond alive. If you have a petition you want me to sign, pm me the details and depending on the cause, I will willingly sign it. Sorry to have slightly hijacked this thread.....oh and to the OP, how did the 5.30pm - 8.30pm visits work please? Just curious, as, other than down here in Oz, I've never had a visit with anyone that extended 'after hours' so to speak!

Hugs and those of us that can have contact visits, be sure to always hug your inmate and tell them you love them, for nothing is ever guaranteed, and visits can be lost in a blink of an eye.
Nomes